The new office building of Energinet.dk in Ballerup has achieved the lowest energy class possible by means of optimizing the design and geometry. The building has an annual energy consumption of only 47,7 kWh/m2. Incorporating solar panels, ground water cooling and heat pumps in the project would further reduce the annual energy consumption.

A flexible and easily comprehensible layout consists of three elements: meeting facilities on the ground floor, a uniting atrium and workstations on the top floor, which floats above the sloping landscape.

The atrium is identity-creating, open and active. A significant part of the environmental objective has been to ensure a high degree of flexibility. The open design as well as the light walls and simple, reusable elements will make it easy to change the interior layout in the future.

Visit the link to view more images of this low-energy design in Denmark...

Japanese firm Kengo Kuma + Associates has unveiled plans to replace an aging Tokyo medical centre with a louvre-clad hospital built around a landscaped garden.

The building will be organised around various green spaces and terraces. Proposal images show waiting rooms fronted by floor-to-ceiling glazing, allowing them to open out to a central courtyard featuring several trees.

These cedar-clad dwellings for music residents in Marlboro, Vt., take an iconic house form and update it with minimal detailing and a palette of local materials.

The cottages play on the 400-year-old Cape Cod typology, which features low sidewalls (a mere 7 feet tall) and steeply raked roofs. “We decided to use those classic proportions,” Soranno says, “but put a contemporary spin on the interiors and detailing.”

A simple palette of local materials—stained cedar cladding, white pine interior walls and ceilings, and slate floors—is rendered in natural finishes and with an almost compulsive lack of detail. Window and door casings—in fact, all trim—are verboten. And while the presences of chimneys is a nod to the vernacular, they don’t connect to fireplaces—instead, they conceal plumbing vents and boiler stacks.

Using a custom-designed structure, LEAPfactory has constructed a new building for a ski and snowboard school beside the highest mountain in the Alps.

Situated in the shadow of Mont Blanc, on the south-east side of the France-Italy border, the small hut provides a new reception and lounge for the Courmayeur Ski and Snowboard School.

"The new structure is made with innovative, highly performing and durable materials: it does not contain concrete nor permanent parts, and it is completely reversible, replaceable and recyclable," said the team.

'Prefabricated components, solar power, airtight construction and a small footprint at this home, designed and built by a team of students at New Zealand’s Victoria University, earned third place in 2011 in the U.S. Solar Decathlon.

Now relocated to a picturesque beach at Hawkes Bay, its ecocredentials are quite possibly the greenest in New Zealand.'

The City Hall, also known as the Crystal (Kristallen), stands as an iconic frame with a profound social impact and an ambitious green profile, using only a fraction of the energy normally consumed by this type of building. The first step of The City Hall was completed in 2014 and hosts 13.500m2 of Citizen Service Centre. When fully completed, the building will have 25.000m2 of offices, conference facilities, a public ground floor and a green rooftop terrace that overlooks the city of Lund and its surroundings all the way to Denmark.

“The Ehrlich Retreat + consists of a new guest house, pool, and shade structure that combine with the original house (previously designed by JFAK) to create a family compound. The new structure is contextually related to the original house, borrowing many of its architectural elements, yet has its own identity.

"The LEED Platinum project is also a model of “integrated sustainability,” in which its green strategies are seamlessly integrated into a unique sculptural aesthetic: the structure’s broad frame embraces and gives presence to the new yard, while shading the house’s southern orientation; the triangular cut-out over the office creates a dramatic form, but also introduces generous amounts of ambient northern light; the steel and wood trellis provides welcoming shade for the yard, and at the same time hosts a 2.4kW photovoltaic array that powers the house and pool.

The overall result is a responsible, light-filled, and joyful environment.”

Solar panels provide all the energy needed to power this brick dormitory designed by Louise Braverman to house medical staff at a rural village in Burundi.

The Village Health Works Staff Housing accommodates an 18-bed dormitory for the healthcare workers in the 16-hectare village of Kigutu. It was designed by New York-based Louise Braverman as part of a wider masterplan for the area.

Behnisch Architekten has big, green aspirations for its latest project, the EpiCenter, fittingly located in Boston’s Innovation District, the burgeoning neighborhood designed for such far-reaching goals. The firm just unveiled plans for a new expanded headquarters for the non-profit, Artists for Humanity (AFH), an organization dedicated to helping underserved youth through paid employment opportunities in the arts.

According to Behnisch, the addition will make the existing LEED Platinum certified building—the city’s first—designed by local firm Arrrowstreet, even greener, with the hope of becoming the largest energy positive commercial building on the East Coast. The building already was an AIA COTE Top Ten winner.

biodSafdie Architects revealed plans for an all-glass, spherical “air hub” that will be built at the center of the Singapore’s Changi Airport, the world’s sixth busiest airport. The biodome was presented as a “new paradigm” for international airports.

“This project redefines and reinvents what airports are all about,” said architect Moshe Safdie. “Our goal was to bring together the duality of a vibrant marketplace and a great urban park side-by-side in a singular and immersive experience. The component of the traditional mall is combined with the experience of nature, culture, education, and recreation, aiming to provide an uplifting experience. By drawing both visitors and local residents alike, we aim to create a place where the people of Singapore interact with the people of the world.”

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) plan for the Smithsonian follows a current trend in museum design to put things underground.The strategy makes sense on several levels. First, it preserves public open space. Second, it avoids making monuments that can make art precincts seem forbidding and inaccessible, as well as sidestepping approval processes in which authorities or neighbors might object to new buildings. Third, it lets institutions connect spaces below ground, and then pop up objects to catch light and signal the museum's presence. Finally, it makes a certain amount of sense from a sustainability standpoint to reuse the land by placing functions underneath public space and using the earth for insulation.

Construction has started in Chengdu, China, on a 468-metre-high crystalline skyscraper by the architects behind the current and future tallest buildings in the world.

The Greenland Tower Chengdu was designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill – the former SOM architects responsible for both the Burj Khalifa and the forthcoming Kingdom Tower – and is set to become the tallest building in south-western China. According to the architects, the faceted-glass form of the office and hotel tower was "inspired by the unique ice mountain topography around Chengdu".

"Like the mountain ridges reflecting the light of the sky and the valleys reflecting light from the earth, the iconic tower will perform as a light sculpture to diffuse light from 360 degrees, creating a connection between sky and earth," said the studio in a statement.

Inspired by the form of a snake, Architects Rebelo de Andrade Studio has designed two Tree Snake Houses where each structure glides sinuously amongst the trees in Portugal’s Pedras Salgadas Park.

Taking their inspiration from the long and tapered proportions of a snake, Lisbon-based architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade & Tiago Rebelo de Andrade of Rebelo de Andrade Studio, have designed two concurrent Tree Snake Houses. Rather than build a treehouse in the branches of a tree, the distinctive snake-like houses, with their slate and wood facades, appear to glide sinuously amongst the trees. The structures become elevated and are raised on stilts as the ground dips downwards. Enjoying a close physical association with the one-hundred year old Pedras Salgadas Park, their aspect is one that is congruous with the park’s natural surroundings. Close attention was paid to making sure that they neither dominated nor vied for attention (despite their eye-catching appearance)...

This wedding chapel stands in a garden of a resort hotel, “Bella Vista Sakaigahama,” in Onomichi, Hiroshima. The site is midway on a hill enjoying a panoramic view of the Inland Sea of Japan. By entwining two spiral stairways, we realized a free-standing building of unprecedented composition and architecturally embodied the act of marriage in a pure form. A single spiral stairway would be unsteady in a horizontal direction and is prone to vibration in a vertical direction, hence, very unstable.

The building’s exterior is finished in upright wood panels, painted white so as to deepen in beauty as time passes, and titanium zinc alloy, a material resistant to damage from the sea breeze and pliable enough to be applied to curvature. Employing the zinc alloy on the coping, walls, ceiling, and window sashes enabled a simple design unified by means of a single material.

The project developed by Chartier Dalix involves two structures: a school with eighteen classrooms and a gymnasium which will be open to local residents. The two structures are united in a single volume, bounded by a same skin: the mineral wall, that represents a clear and definite gesture for the ZAC. This building is the “green heart” of the island. The school thus serves as a unifying element in a landscape where which flora and fauna play a vital part in guiding re-development for the rest of the area.

This project is a “landscape as living space“ rather than a simple building. There are two distinct parts to the building: a mineral section – the facades – and a section made of plants – the roof. This envelope wraps itself around the school, a general volume with smooth contours and supple lines, revealing fluid interior spaces and elastic exterior ones, avoiding ruptures between volumes. The highly compact building opens onto the neighbourhood, offering a multitude of perspectives.

Good design should consider the context within which the building is set. Great to see green space being added to a dense urban environment bringing benefits to the children at the school, wildlife and providing a little urban cooling and SUDs.

A Norwegian eco home incorporates a heated pool and a sauna, but still produces three times more electricity than it uses.

Researchers designed the house with a solar-powered roof in collaboration with architects firm Snøhetta. Heat exchangers use excess energy to heat the outside swimming pool and the house even has its own sauna.Insulation is so good that each floor has just one radiator, and each room has sensors to ensure that light and heat is directed efficiently. It produces 23,200kWh of energy a year but requires just 7,272kW to run.It may look like a Portacabin that has been involved in a nasty accident, but this slanting roofed building is actually the ultimate ecohome...

Moveable timber fins cover the top five storeys of this university technology centre by French architects Badia Berger to modulate light and shade inside.

The timber fins that cover the exterior can rotate to alter shade and light inside, and are made from heat-treated pine.The thermo-treatment improves the timber's durability and the process requires no chemicals – only heat, steam and oil," said the architects.

The new Linares’ university district, designed by Canvas Arquitectos, emerged as a unique opportunity to define an urban structure that reinforces urban identity and creates a relationship that integrates the university uses with those of industrial research.

The new campus is sensitive to the landscape and topography as well as the mining and industrial condition defining since its founding in Linares. This sense of descent and discovery accused throughout the intervention.

Each building specifically addresses use and identity; courtyards articulate different scales and establish relationships with the landscape andl the surrounding geography. In addition to courtyards, a rooftop garden resolves climatic conditions.

Moshe Safdie is famous for his iconic Montreal housing complex Habitat ’67, and he is still creating innovative large-scale urban projects around the world. The latest project his firm, Safdie Architects, has debuted is the design for development at Singapore's Changi Airport. The scheme aims to create a public gathering space with gardens, retail stores, hotel, restaurants, and entertainment that will lure travelers, airport employees, and local residents.

The glass dome will encompass a space of 134,000 square meters and houses a 130-foot-high waterfall. The dome's curved shape, recalling the tradition of glass conservatories, provides inherent structural strength to the glass and steel structure. Tree-like structural columns in a ring support the dome while a suspended roof covers the adjacent atrium space.

The space also showcases natural elements: walking trails travel through an indoor topography of trees, palms, and ferns called "Forest Valley".The different elements — dining, accommodations, and retail — are spread throughout the structure so as to give each of them impressive views of the natural features.

Singapore’s new National Stadium has the world’s largest single-span dome. And by leaving it open at one end, its designers have given the multi-purpose pitch one of the most beautiful backdrops in sport, with one of the most efficient structures possible.

A new cabin by Atelier Oslo within Norway's Krokskogen forest formed the striking backdrop to our 'Norse Power' shoot in the December issue. Four angular 'arms' spring out of a main core, anchoring this home to a steep slope over Lake Steinsfjorden. Cabin at Norderhov provides both refuge from and connection to its woodland surroundings.A couple based in Oslo commissioned the project, with a view to using it as a weekend base for cross-country skiing and hiking. The structure was designed in response to their relationship with nature. Its prefabricated system of laminated wood reflects the surrounding trees and is supported by steel rods drilled directly into the rock. Aside from dividing the internal space into discrete zones, the arms also accommodate covered terraces outside.

MFRMGR has revealed designs to revitalise a former Polish observation tower in the Baltic Sea to create a base for water sports enthusiasts and researchers.

The lookout station formerly operated as a watch tower for a German research facility responsible for the development of torpedoes during the Second World War, and is one of several derelict structures that rises out of the waters of Puck Bay, on the northern coast of Poland.

The building will harvest renewable energy from the wind and sun, and will also be equipped with a built-in sewage tank, food storage units and a power generator to take over during electricity outages.

A decked platform surrounding the structure will create a breakwater and miniature harbour to prevent damage from high waves and adverse weather, as well as giving occupants space to securely moor their boats.

Three floating "islands" with planting and a rainwater collection tank will link the decking with the building, accommodating a vegetable and herb garden, and an area dedicated to birds...

Tula house in Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada, is an example of modern architecture blending in a harsh natural surroundings.

Envisioned by Patkau Architects and perched 44 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a remote island, it reflects the casual irregularity of the sites rock ledges, beach, and forest in both its geometric and spatial order: “The topography of the site is highly irregular; the prospects diverse. Moss covered basalt hills are interspersed among treed expanses and richly vegetated crevices, valleys and swales.”

From a distance, the residence seems to visually fade away into the dark forest. Planted in moss and native ground covers, the continuous roof stands out with its rich geometry. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through the inner spaces. “A loose arrangement of concrete walls, clad in staggered fiber-cement panels” define the structure of this unconventional ocean dwelling. A cantilevered wooden deck with steel frames creates a stunning outdoor area for relaxation. The living zone is sober, yet almost hypnotizing with its glazed apertures and incredible views.

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